But India’s cabinet secretariat—an arm of the prime minister’s office—has issued instructions to the nation’s government ministries to start drawing up lists of what they’ve done right (and wrong) in the past. And what they think should be done next.

The finance ministry has already prepared its report, officials there say. Little surprise, perhaps, but it identifies high inflation as a priority for Mr. Modi’s incoming government. Consumer inflation was at 8.6% in April, and rising food prices have been particularly problematic for India’s millions of poor.

Advertisement

Separately, the commerce and industry ministry has suggested steps to boost manufacturing activity and reduce foreign-investment restrictions in various industries, including defense.

Officials from the two ministries didn’t give further details.

“We have to state our past mistakes and suggest what independent action we would like to take to bolster growth,” one senior official from a third ministry told The Wall Street Journal. His department is readying a list of five achievements in recent years, and priorities for the upcoming years, this official said.

Officials in other wings of the government are preparing similar presentations for India’s new political leadership, which will take oath on Monday. “There will be nearly a dozen slides in the presentations from each of the identified ministries,” an official from another ministry said.

Mr. Modi will be taking charge at a time when India faces daunting challenges, including not only high inflation but a sluggish economy, slow job growth and a bureaucratic government-approval system that has held up important industrial and development projects. Economic growth has slowed to decade-low levels.

Officials are worried the problems could increase if India sees a worse-than-usual monsoon rainfall, which some forecasters are predicting due to global “El Nino” weather patterns that tend to tame monsoon precipitation. India’s overall economy is reliant on agriculture.

Some critics of India’s outgoing leadership, headed by the Congress party, blame it for the economic weakness, for various government corruption scandals, and for being unfriendly toward global investors. They cite, for instance, a series of tax disputes with international companies including Vodafone Group PLC, Nokia Corp., Royal Dutch Shell and General Electric Co. Observers say that one way of indicating to foreign enterprises that Asia’s third-largest economy should be considered for new investments would be to find ways to resolve these tax disputes.

The historic election victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government, combined with Mr. Modi’s record of economic development as chief minister of the state of Gujarat, have raised expectations that he will overhaul India’s federal government and revive the economy. Growth has slowed to less than 5% from about 9% a few years ago.

During Mr. Modi’s tenure as chief minister of Gujarat, which began in 2001, the state prospered and Mr. Modi overhauled state policies in ways that reduced red tape. He has also been a divisive political figure, though, and has been criticized as a Hindu nationalist politician who didn’t do enough to stop bloody religious clashes a decade ago in his state that left many dead, mostly Muslims. Mr. Modi has consistently defended his actions and said he acted responsibly. A probe ordered by India’s Supreme Court earlier absolved him of wrongdoing.

In the national parliamentary campaign that concluded in recent weeks, he distanced himself from religious rhetoric and positioned himself as the champion of economic development. He cited growth and industrialization under his leadership in Gujarat. Between 2001 and 2012, Gujarat’s economy grew by 10.1% a year, on average, after adjusting for inflation, compared with 7.7% for India’s economy as a whole.

About India Real Time

India Real Time offers analysis and insights into the broad range of developments in business, markets, the economy, politics, culture, sports, and entertainment that take place every single day in the world’s largest democracy. Regular posts from Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires reporters around the country provide a unique take on the main stories in the news, shed light on what else mattered and why, and give global readers a snapshot of what Indians have been talking about all week. You can contact the editors at indiarealtime(at)wsj(dot)com.